300k Fukushima refugees still living 'in cages' in makeshift camps

Tiny dwellings of Fukushima re-settlers in the town of Koriyama (Photo by Alexey Yaroshevsky)

Over two years after an earthquake and tsunami devastated areas in and around the Japanese city of Fukushima, many residents have been left to live in impromptu residential camps with no hope of returning to their previous ways of life.

The March 2011 tsunami forced hundreds of thousands in the
Fukushima area to flee at a moment’s notice. RT’s Aleksey
Yaroshevsky reports that many refugees living in quickly-erected
30-square-meter homes in Koriyama were initially promised that
conditions would eventually improve, yet most seem to have long
abandoned any semblance of better prospects or redeeming what
once was.

“When the tsunami hit, we were told to pack only the
necessary things and run away,” one refugee told RT.
“They said it would be only for two, three days. Now, living
in this cage of a house, returning to our old house is a dream
which we know won’t ever come true. We are being fed with
promises of a bigger house, but that’s as far as it gets:
promises.”

Yaroshevsky reports that there are hundreds of such makeshift
camps around the region, accommodating over 300,000 people. The
majority in the Koriyama camp are unemployed pensioners with
ailments.

One man living there told RT that his once profitable job is long
gone, and that the broken promises are still very real.

“I had a $100,000-a-year business producing honey, now it’s
destroyed forever, just like my life,” he said. “On top
of all that, I’m offered neither financial compensation nor any
job. That’s why I’m taking TEPCO to court.”

He is not alone among refugees aiming for compensation from TEPCO
(Tokyo Electric Power Co.), the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant. Many claim the company failed to take
precautions ahead of the events of March 2011 which caused a
meltdown
of three of the plant’s nuclear reactors. In September, The Japan
Times reported that 171 people from Fukushima Prefecture were
suing TEPCO and the Japanese government for US$15,714,000 in
damages. Similar claims by over 3,000 plaintiffs have been filed
in at least 11 district courts in Japan.

As for the central government’s accountability after the promises
made to refugees, a local official told RT that he’s in the dark
as well.

“The government said it’s building bigger houses, but will
finish it in no sooner than two years. Not all these people will
be able to live in those,” a local administration
representative in Koriyama, Harada told RT. “That’s as little
as we officials on the ground are told by the central
government.”

According to the Japanese Science and Environment Ministry,
around 84,000 refugees have received or will receive rolling
stipends from TEPCO for the evacuation. An average family of four
will receive approximately between $400,000 and $900,000, based
on where they lived ahead of the evacuation.